The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed a District Court finding that Argentina had waived its immunity under the implied waiver and arbitral award exceptions to the Foreign Sovereign Immunities Act (FSIA). Blue Ridge Investments, L.L.C. had filed to confirm a 2005 arbitration award that an International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes (ICSID) tribunal had entered in the amount of $133.2 million plus interest. The District Court denied Argentina's motion to dismiss on, inter alia, the ground of foreign sovereign immunity.
After finding that it had jurisdiction to consider the District Court's FSIA decision, the Court of Appeals found that Argentina implicitly waived immunity by ratifying the Convention on the Settlement of Investment Disputes between States and Nationals of Other States (ICSID Convention) because Article 54 of the Convention requires a Contracting State to recognize and enforce an arbitration award.  The Court also held that the arbitral award exception applied to awards under the ICSID Convention because the ICSID Convention satisfies the treaty requirements of the exception, and because the United States and Argentina are both parties to the ICSID Convention.  The Court of Appeals remanded the case to the District Court for further proceedings consistent with its opinion.